570 
35 
D6 S5 

»py 1 Ibe Masbinoton 
Ipeace Carillon 



B JSrocbure ■(f55ue^ bi^ 
Xovcrs of tbe Bells anO 
DeMcateD to ©tbers of 
Hbeir ^f^in^. 'S^onc in tbe 
Interest of a (3reater 
masbtnoton. 




% 







lH^iT'llF'V"'^ ■ GHENT 



{Rt-engraVfd Jnm B:!s'an Towers CaL ndar 
Courtrsv cf IVilliam Gorham Rice) 

0bcnt 

Whose carillon of 52 bells has given joy to many thous- 
ands. In December, 1 8 14, these bells lang out at the sign- 
ing of the treaty of peace between the United States and 
Great Britain, and but for the outbreak of the great war, 
would in 1914 have celebrated the completion of a hundred 
years of unbroken peace between the two nations. 



A%th6r 



A PEACE CARILLON 

By 

J. Marion Shull 



Silent are the chnrch towers of Flanders 
and Artois, the belfries of Donai and Brnges. 
Tliey have been robbed of their treasures, 
those bells that for hundreds of years have 
pealed forth the hopes and aspirations of the 
surrounding countryside. These bells have 
suffered desecration, their nolile metal recast 
for purposes of war and their erstwhile melo- 
dious tongues constrained to speak the rau- 
cous tones of battle in behalf of barbarian 
hosts. But now that it is within our power 
let us give them liack to civilization. From 
the metal of captured enemy cannon let there 
be cast the most wonderful carillon of bells 
of which the world's best makers are capable, 
and let these be duplicated in sufficient num- 
bers that the capital city of each of the great 



* Published originally in the Boston Transcript for Nov. 29, 
1918, and subsequently appearing in many other publica- 
tions, including the IVashington Star, Dec. 1, and the Liter- 
arn Digsst of Dec. 14, following. 



4. THR WASHINGTON PEACE CARILEOJN 

allied nations may be provided with a set of 
these "peace bells." 

The architects of all the world would vie 
with one another to see that in each of these 
cities should arise a magnificent bell tower to 
house this carillon, a splendid example of fit- 
ting architecture, worthy of the theme com- 
memorated. No doubt, some modern Giotto 
would emerge to give the world a master- 
piece in stone, which would gather to itself 
tradition from the past and build tradition for 
the years to come. Incorporate within its 
walls, perhaps, some block from shattered 
Rheims, from Amiens and Arras ; another 
from the ruined treasures of Louvain, and so 
perpetuate the glory of those sacred heaps of 
stone now tumbled in confusion by the ruth- 
less hand of hate. Then, too, some vi lage 
on the Marne, where first the invading hosts 
were halted and turned back, might honor 
thus and in its turn be honored l>y one memo- 
rial stone in this great monument to peace. 

Bells have been cast from cannon in the 
past. More than two hundred years ago, in 
1710, the Emperor Joseph I, of Austria, had 
a great l)ell cast from Turkish cannon and 
placed in the tower of St. Stephen's at Vienna. 
This, known as the emperor bell, or some- 
times called the Josephine bell, weighed sev- 
enteen tons. But this, although it symbolized 
a triumph of the Christian over the Turk, was 
also meant to glorify the emperor's military 
might. It spoke of insolent pride, not peace 
and good will, and furnished an example for . 
Emperor William in 1873. Read now the 
arrogant inscription that winds in three en- 
circling lines about this later emperor bell, 
so named in honor of Emperor William, who 
had it cast from twenty cannon taken from 
the French in 1870, and hung in the tower of 



•i-:aciv c.\rii,L().\ 



Cologne Cathedral. The original is in Latin, 
l)ut is translated thus : 

"William, tlie m( st illustrious Emperor of 
Germany and King of Prussia, in pious re- 
memhrance of the heavenly aid granted him 
in the fortunate course and conclusion of the 
last French war, has ordered, after the resto- 
ration of the German empire, a bell to be cast 
from the captured cannon, of the weight of 
50,000 pounds, which is to be suspended in the 
house of God, now nearly completed. In ac- 
cordance with this pious desire of the victo- 
rious prince, the society formed for the com- 
pletion of the cathedral has caused it to be 
cast, under Roman Pontifif Pius IX and the 
Archhishop of Cologne, Paul Melchers, in the 
year of our Lord 1874." 

And underneath the (^icrman imperial coat 
of arms occurs this ver'^e, here freely trans- 
lated: 

"Emperor" Bell I am named. 
The Emperor's name make famed. 

On holy ward I stand 

For German Fatherland. 
I pray, God grant it hence 
Peace, welfare, and defense. 

Was it with ^-omething of intuitive appre- 
ciation of Prussian character on the part of 
the designer of this bell that the si.\ arms that 
form the crown are decorated with angels' 
heads above, and end where they join the 
bell in lions' feet? Why, a whole sermon 
could lie preached on this alone ! The saintly, 
sacred, outward seeming, Init, underlying all, 
the Beast ! And did those lions' claws but 
typify the grasping spirit of the Prussian 
war-lord? And the bell, France, that he 
would grasT entire and sway or strike at will? 



6. THF, WASHIN(;T0N PlvACF, CARILLON 

Perhaps even then some Fate foresaw the 
jangling discord of the last few j^ears and as 
a symbol and a prophe:y caused the great bell 
to come from the founder's hand C-sharp in- 
stead of C, and, therefore, not in tune with 
the other bells of the cathedral ! 

Again, in 1887, no less than twenty-two 
French guns were used to cast the "Gloricsa," 
another great bell that was raised with much 
ceremony to its place in Cologne Cathedral, 
there to join the "Emperor" bell in a clan- 
gorous derision of defeated and humiliated 
France. 

We hold Cologne, at lea-^t until the accept- 
ance of our terms of peace liy the now de- 
feated Germany. Why should we not exact 
the restitution of these bells to now triumph- 
ant France? War-lust created them, and thus 
far they have known no other theme than 
praise of then- creator. Let's melt them 
down and give them back to France, recast 
for nobler use and given tongues of peace: 
or break them into bits and let a portion go 
to each and every one of our Peace carillons, 
there to proclaim throughout the world tht 
triumph of a great and glorious cause. 

Imagine, then, thc'-e carillons complete a:id 
carried high aloft within their towers, there 
to speak forth from year to year the nation's 
joys and sorrows: a pasan of thanksgiving 
now; again a vesper service soft and sweet, 
or, when we pay our loving tril)ute to the 
nation's dead, a solemn dirge shall waft 
across the river and like a benediction fall 
upon the hushed and reverent throng. On 
every state occasion they would serve : at our 
inaugurals, give farewell thanks to the de- 
parting president and loyal greetings to the 
newly chosen chief: do homage to the great 
of foreign lands and ring glad welcome when 



A IM'.ACl' CARJLLON 7 

thev come to us from overseas ; would cele- 
brate the nation's birth with jubilant peal on 
peal ; and on the anniversary of that Novem- 
lier day that marked the final triumph of 
Humanity, let there lie rung from all the 
capitals a grand Tc Dciini of World Brother- 
hood. 

And so in fancy let us dedicate these 
carillons to Peace, and say with Tennyson : 

Ring out, wild liells. to the wild sky, 
The flying cloud, the frosty light ; 
The year is dying in the night ; 

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. 

Ring out a slowly dying cause, 

And ancient forms of party strife; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life. 

With sweeter manners, purer laws. 



Ring out false pride in place and l)lood 
The civic slander and the spite ; 
Ring in the love of truth and right. 

Ring in the common love of good. 

Ring out old shapes of foul disease ; 

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; 

Ring out the thousand wars of old. 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 



A MEMORIAL BUILDING^WITH BELL 
TOWER AND PEACE CARILLON. 



A CONCRETE STATEMENT LOOKING TO THE PRAC- 
TICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA PRE- 
SENTED IN THE FOREGOING PAG.'.S : 



OBJECT: ^t 's here proposed tliat in the city of 
Washington there shall be erected a national me- 
morial to commemorate the heroes and events of 
the great war, seeking to keep the chief emphasis 
on the esthetic and moral side rather than on that 
(if physical triumph of armed force. 

DESCRIPTION: A memorial building of monu- 

mental architectural proportions, to include as an 
essential embellishment a bell-tower at least 200 
feet high to the bells and of sufficient lateral di- 
mensions to provide a bell-chamber 25 feet square. 

COST OF MEMORIAL BUILDING: it is proposed 

tliat the cost .shall nui exceed fs-oo^^iOOo, lo bo 
appropriated by an Act of Congrtss fcr such Pur- 
pose. (If the memorial were in the form of a bell- 
tower only, the cost should be b;tween one and 
two million dollars.) 

DESCRIPTION OF CARILLON: T">s sliould con 

sist of al)out 51) perftctly tvmed bells, giving a 
range of four octaves or thereabout, and a com- 
plete playing mechanism for both concert and 
automatic play. 

MATERIAL FOR BELLS: t^op.er to the extent 

of 60.000 pounds, sufficient for a carillon of 50 
bells, would be derived from captured enemy war 
materials. (In the absence of bronze cannon among 
the American captures, this copper would be obtain- 
able from 86,000 pounds of shell-cases, to be fur- 
nished by the War Department at the direction of 
Congress.) The requisite tin, some 15,000 pounds, 
might best be supplied under terms cf coniract by 
the bell founders 

COST OF CARILLON: Such a carillon complete 
with ]ilayiiig mechanism would be obtainable at a 
cost not exceeding $40,000. 



USES: Si'x'v a memorial would alTonl anvile op- 
portunity for every type of memorial trLa'.ment: 
Architecture, sculpture, inscriiUion, tablet, muraT 
painting, and the housing of relics and records, 
etc. ; in fact possess every advantage that an arch 
or other memorial structure could possibly give 
and av<iid the objectionable sentiment that many 
jicc pie feel toward the triumphal arch idea. 

.Music, whether played automatically or by hand, 
is always imder control and can be ]daycd sjft 
or loud as the bell-master may decide. Some 
wonderful snatch of melody would play auto- 
matically morning and evening or during the noon 
hour, changed from time to time for the sake of 
variety or to suit the particular season, while on 
one evening each week the bell-masfcr would pre- 
sent a formal concert 

LOCATION: .\ me:r.oriaI of '.his kind should b:- wll 
in the miilst of the city, that many mi; lit tnjoy it:. 
music by the mere opening of a window or a 
door, and that other thousands might have ready 
access to concerts without long journeys for thac 
purpose. ( .\s many as 30.000 people are said to 
have gathered for a concert of this kind at Jila- 
lines, ]?elgium.) Preferab'y, tlio not necessarily, 
such a building should be on elevated ground, and 
near sufficient opeti space such as a jiark would 
aft'ord, to accommodate large numbers of people 
wlu) would gather for the concerts. Many have 
suggested Sixteenth Street Park as an ideal s.t- 
ting for it. 

AS A BUSINESS ASSET: ^Vhile most people will 

prefer to dwell upon its esthetic and cultural 
values, finding in it a never ending source of in- 
spiration, it will not be amiss to consider it as a 
business asset as well. It is doubtful whether a 
single additional visitor or resident would be 
drawn to Washington by reason ot the erection 
here of ever so fine a triumphal arch or oth r 
similar memorial. On the other hand a memorial 
such as is here proposed wouhi, by reason of its 
unique character in America, and by virtue of its 
excellence, scon become an ap;iealing object of in- 
terest in every village and town thruout the 
I'nited States, and be the means of drawing many 
thousands of additional visitors to the capital and 
holding them longer one? they were h.re. It 
could undoubtedly be made the greatest single 
attraction in this city of attractions. 



THE FIRST CONCERT 

A FORECAST 



By 

J. Marion Shull 



It is evening. Within the park are gathered 
many thousands from the Capital. Not only 
these Init manv b.nndreds from outside as 
well, for on this night in May the world's 
most famous master of the bells is to present 
the initial concert on Washington's great 
Carillon. 

For long the unsightly mingled mass of 
stone and steel and wood that crowned the 
hill had given little indication of its ultimate 
intent. From time to time processions came 
that seemed to the onlooker like pilgrimages 
to some sacred shrine ; Tri-color and the 
Stars and Stripes in front, to music of the 



TllK FIRST COXCl'.Uf ii 

Marseillaise, is brought a stone from shat- 
tered Rheims, the gift of France, whose gift 
of freedom to the world we thus record. 
From the Argonne. from Chateau Thierry 
and St. M'-hiel, come other stones esci rted by 
our own lirave boys. These each, with fittiu'j, 
ceremony, are builded in the wall of our me- 
morial. Then there are other stones from 
Arras, .\miens, and villages along the Marne 
wl:ere broke the surging wave that all but 
overwhelmed the world ; one from Verdun 
in-cribed "They shall not pass"'; and Bel- 
gium's king pays trilnite from the ruined 
treasures of Louvain. And so in after years 
the pilgrims at this shrine shall read, passing 
from :-'tone to stone, an epic of heroic sacri- 
fice that justice and the love of fellow man 
might not be swept forever from the earth. 

The cumliering tools of industrv, the cranes 
with creaking ropes, the scaffolding, at last 
have disappeared, and stands revealed a won- 
drous work of art: A sturdy sculptured 
basal edifice where lironze and marljle tell of 
noble aspirations worthily achieved ; where 
frieze and pediment in low relief bespeak the 
glory of the greatest cause man ever strug- 
gled to maintain. Within, resplendent walls 
with iridescent colors where the artist's brush 
takes up the tale that architect and sculptor 
have liegun ; and rivalling these the silken 
folds of flags, emblems of all the nations that 
stood shoulder to shoulder in the great em- 
prise. And from this basal structure, the 
soaring shaft, compact of grace and lieauty, 
lithe yet strong, firm footed on the earth yet 
reaching heavenward, well typifies the s;urit 
of tlie men who risked their all to save the 
world from slavery. 

The sun has set behind light b.anks of cloud 
and hung the stage witli ruddy tapestries 



12. Till'; WASIIINC.TON PKACK CAUIJ.I.OM 

whose gorgeous reds and golds are inter- 
spersed with turquoise. But even while the 
throng in wonderment looks on, change fol- 
lows change, the gold to topaz quickly melts, 
the roseate clouds are all empurpled, and the 
turquoise sky gives way to grays such as de- 
lighted Whistler in his day. Then twilight, 
stars, and a pale young moon, to play at hide 
and seek among the wisps of cloud whose 
silvery sheen betrays her hiding place. 

At last the hour has struck and all is 
hushed expectancy. All eyes are lifted up 
to where a faintly lighted window in the 
tower gives forth the one suggestion that 
some human agency is there. Hark ! What 
is that? A faint sweet sound that comes from 
out the sky as if the gates of heaven liad 
opened and let fall ethereal voices from a 
thousand miles, so soft, the ear is strained 
to intercept them, and fancy is half tempted 
to believe it all illusive and imagined melody. 
But now it takes more shape, stands out more 
firm and clear ; the ear becomes more confi- 
dent, and fancy yields to fact ; it is indeed 
the carillon's voice ; the bells have come to 
life. No gasping natal cry is this, but rather 
the soft stirring as of one that wakes from 
peaceful sleep. Nearer and ever nearei, 
wave on wave, out of infinite distance seem 
to come those far off melodies, drifting down 
and down as gently as drifts the snow when 
winds are hushed, till at last the entire heavens 
seem filled with one pulsating ecstasy of 
sound, then fades away into the distance 
once again, till tower, bells, musician, forgot- 
ten one and all. the music seems to come from 
mystic space behind yon bank of cloud that 
lies athwart the moon. Again, a sound of 
trampling hosts of mighty horsemen rushing 
down the heights as if to overwhelm the lis- 



THE FIRST CONCERT 



tening multitude, those marvellous arpeggios 
gallopiug madly in their course, now dance 
and prance, now rush impetuously, then lift 
and fade to airy nothingness and silence. 

A moment's pause ; some silent, unseen 
hand has swiftly changed the scene, and now 
there comes a harcaroUe, so sweet, so placid, 
while the ear perceives the eye beholds, a 
wide expanse of rippling wavelets neath shim- 
mering moonlight of a summer night. One 
feels upon the cheek the soft caress of sum- 
mer airs nor knows for certainty if it he true 
or only fancied, hut presently the winds have 
risen and, is it felt, or is it only heard, the 
rhythmic rocking of the boat that lulls the 
spirit with a tender lullaby? But what was 
that? A far away, intrusive rumbling breaks 
the spell and many eyes are turned to scan 
the gray horizon for sign of coming storm ; 
but all is fair, no flash of lightning, no banks 
of inky clouds. Instead of distant thunder 
there is now the booming sound of waves that 
beat themselves to spray against the rocks ; 
and to those ears most well attuned, above 
the deep toned bass, in higher bells is heard 
the counterpart of that same spray, light 
effervescence of the master's art. At length 
the current leaps and bounds, in grand cres- 
cendo, irresistibly, and pours itself in one 
torrential rush of sheer descent, a veritable 
Niagara of sound that holds the audience 
spellbound in its grasp. Then turbulent up- 
roar and dissonance give way to chords of 
fullest harmony and once again is heard the 
theme of rocking wa\'es all placid as at first. 

The concert closes with the National Air, 
as is our wont, but played as never had it 
been played before on our own soil, the clear, 
pure tones dropping from high aloft as shaken 
from the verv folds of our bright emblem 



:<(. THE WASHINGTON PEACK CARILLUN 

there, each scintilant note a star, flung off 
in ecstasy, to bear a message to the ears of 
men, of peace on earth, but peace with free- 
dom still. 

The last vibration dies away and in its 
place a half reluctant murmur from the 
throng, as if they fain would leave the spell 
unbroken, now swells in volume and resolves 
itself into the myriad sounds of congregated 
life ; a babel of voices full of wonderment 
that metals snatched from war's accouter- 
ments could ever speak like that; full also of 
the thought that Washington, enriched by this 
new art, new to America tho old elsewhere, 
is destined thereby to become the Mecca of 
many a music-lover's pilgrimage from every 
'look and corner of the land. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 933 549 9 



D 570 
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.06 S5 
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